> It didn't lead to the stock market crash, but it always stuck me as the first time that the general public started to really think that the whole dot com scen

> It didn't lead to the stock market crash, but it always stuck me as the first time that the general public started to really think that the whole dot com scene was a little out of whack. That's because the general public, and frankly even the non-general public, have never fully understood the digital computer: it's a leverage machine. It allows the exceptionally intelligent and/or insightful to leverage code to do what would have taken thousands, or even millions of workers to achieve. That's why a billion dollar photo startup can be created by three people and sold to Facebook. It looks like alchemy to the people without knowledge, because it's complex, difficult, requires a bit of luck (the right time / right place combination), and frankly, does require a certain level of intelligence that's well above average in order to fully exploit.